Sometimes you just need to get away. Well, I shouldn’t speak for you. But sometimes I just need to get away. And that’s exactly what I did a couple weeks ago.
Every once in a while, I like to disappear. Sometimes I’ll go somewhere with whoever I’m dating at the time. Sometimes I’ll go somewhere with a friend or relative. And sometimes I just want to get the fuck away from everyone and go somewhere by myself. That’s what I wanted… no, needed this time. So I made a plan, packed my shit, and hit the road.
Originally, I thought about going someplace warm and sunny. That’s my default destination. But instead, I decided to road trip it out to the Midwest to visit family. That would give me the best of both worlds. I’d get plenty of alone time on the way there and back, and I’d get to spend some time with family members I don’t get to see very often. Win/win.
The first thing I did was plan my route. There’s a great website called roadtrippers.com that I highly recommend to anyone planning a road trip. You just put in your starting location and destination. Then, the website tells you all the cool stuff along the way. You can even put in how far you’re willing to stray from your route.
After deciding on my route and writing down a bunch of spots I wanted to stop at along the way, I hit the road. Here are two awesome places that I checked out.
Centralia, PA
If you’re a fan of the video game and movie Silent Hill, you might already know what Centralia is. It’s a ghost town in the middle of Pennsylvania that the game was inspired by. I loved both the game and the movie and had wanted to visit Centralia ever since I first learned about it.
Centralia was once a bustling mining town in the heart of Pennsylvania. The town was built on top of a massive coal deposit. In the 1960’s the coal caught on fire and couldn’t be put out. It caused parts of Centralia to start sinking into the ground and sent black ash into the air just like in Silent Hill. The town was once home to thousands of people but was evacuated due to safety concerns. Now, Centralia is a ghost town and popular destination for visitors like me.
I left Boston at 11AM and got to Centralia, PA a little before 6PM. The weather was perfect – sunny and warm but not too humid. There were two main things that I wanted to check out in Centralia: the church from the Silent Hill movie and what is now known as the Graffiti Highway.
The church is called the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and sits on the corner of a windy road. There were No Trespassing signs everywhere. I found a spot to park around the corner, hopped out of my car, and snapped a couple of quick pictures. It would’ve been cool to actually go in the church, but it was clearly off limits.
I got back in my car and looked for a good spot to park so I could walk through the woods to the Graffiti Highway. It’s a stretch of road that used to have buildings on both sides but now is surrounded by nothing but overgrowth. After walking through the woods for a few minutes and going past about 5 No Trespassing signs, I got to the highway. What a strange sight that was! For as far as the eye can see, it’s nothing but pavement covered in graffiti.
There were a few other people checking out the Graffiti Highway when I was there. It was incredibly cool to see. I didn’t stay for too long, just long enough to look around and take a few pics. Police are known to kick out and even arrest visitors, so I didn’t want to linger for too long. It was so surreal to see what used to be a big town now barren and covered in graffiti. But it was very cool and now I can cross Centralia off my list of places I want to visit.
Casey, Illinois
After leaving Centralia, I continued heading west. I stopped in Dayton, Ohio for an airshow at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for a few hours, then got back on the road. From there, I drove to my next destination: Casey, Illinois.
Casey is a small town in Illinois not too far from the Indiana border. For the most part, it looks like any other small Midwestern town. But there is one key difference: Casey is the home to several of the world’s largest items. In this small town, you’ll find the world’s largest mailbox, sewing needle, golf tee, pencil, wind chime, pitch fork, wooden shoes, and rocking chair.
Businessman and Casey resident Jim Bolin came up with the idea of creating something to put his small Illinois town on the map. But he didn’t stop at one thing. Mr. Bolin has created eight of the world’s largest items, all certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. And from what several Casey residents told me, more are in the works.
Walking around Casey was just as surreal as walking around Centralia, but a different sort of surreal. You’ll be walking down what looks like any other small town road, turn a corner, and bam! – some massive everyday item will be right there. Of all the oversized items I saw, the mailbox was my favorite. You can even go up inside it which, of course, I did.
I got to Casey in the evening and spent a couple of hours exploring the town until the sun went down. Everyone I talked to was friendly, informative, and proud of their little town full of big things. If you’re ever traveling through Illinois on Interstate 70 or Route 40, I highly recommend checking out this wonderful little town.
Conclusion
I’ve always loved traveling, exploring new places, and meeting new people. Not only do I enjoy it – it’s also good for my writing. If I don’t get away every few months at least, I start to feel stuck. And that’s exactly how I was feeling a few weeks ago. But this adventure was exactly what I needed. Now I feel refreshed and motivated once again.
If you want to hear about some of my other adventures and my writing, sign up for the Ellis Michaels newsletter. Do you like to travel and explore new places? What are some of the coolest places you have checked out?
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